


Letting The Lion Win

by The Dog and the Rabbit (dreams_and_other_stuff)



Series: Not Evil To The Core [1]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M, and somehow even that gets complicated??, idk its late wow this is my first fic in this fandom, josh is a superhero and tylers a super villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 08:50:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5284400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreams_and_other_stuff/pseuds/The%20Dog%20and%20the%20Rabbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh is a newbie superhero just trying to protect his city, and Blurryface is an asshole cat burglar who has to make his life difficult just for the hell of it. All Josh really wants is to be able to date his cute best friend but life has other plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letting The Lion Win

Josh pulled himself up and over the ledge of the apartment complex he had perched upon, landing in the damp concrete floor of the alley with barely a thud. 

It all happens too fast for most people to catch. One swift kick and the man with the gun is on the ground. The woman cornered at the alley almost maces him but he manages to notice even the way her heels clack against the pavement and ducks just in time. 

Revelation hits her just as soon as she opens her eyes again. 

"Y-you, you're-"

"Fine, I'm fine! It's fine, it's okay. Are you hurt?" Josh manages awkwardly. It doesnt matter that he's been going around doing his vigilante crime-fighter act for about a year now, he still never knows what to say to people when he's there. He really ought to work on it. 

"I'm okay" she nods. "I'm uh, I'm sorry I almost pepper sprayed you" she punctuates by shaking the can in her hands. Josh is very relieved to see how calm she is despite having faced down an armed attacker. 

Suddenly, a shriek. 

Josh has seconds to think. A shadow to his side, arms raising, the clicking of something metal, and finally the sound of a gunshot. He focuses energy into the space beside him like a force field. The bullet drops to the ground unceremoniously. 

"I really wish you hadn't done that" Josh says, very proud of himself for the one liner.

More gunshots, more bullets clacking against the ground, someone really ought to have noticed them by now. Josh starts advancing on the man, gunfire ringing with every step. The gun runs out of bullets by the time he close enough and the man makes the mistake of just trying to use it against him as a blunt weapon. His arm makes contact with Josh's shield and he reels back in pain, shaking on the ground like he’d been shocked. 

Josh inspects the man's unconscious body for any more weapons and when he finds nothing, turns around and gives the woman a reassuring smile and a thumbs up.

\---

He escorts the woman to the main road and hails her a cab, pausing to take a selfie with her. He's found that it's easier this way, and with a mask on it's not like he has to worry about how he looks. 

He ponders how lucky it was that he happened to be in the area when this happened. For random attacks like this he can’t exactly count on the police line he regularly intercepts. Jumping across buildings doesn't quite cut it either, he wonders how Batman does it. No, in his case the most reliable way involves finding a quiet empty space in the middle of the city, like say this convenient little alley, and simply being.

Listening.

He plants his feet into the ground and tunes into the city. 

The pavement talks. He can feel a heartbeat thrumming steady under the concrete, like a kick drum. The rhythm is part of him now. 

Enhanced strength and speed aren't anything to scoff at but he's pretty sure this is the thing that made him decide to get out there and play hero. He can feel the latent kinetic energy of a whole city bend under his touch. He feels so much, like he hasn't felt in way too long. He senses and sees, very very briefly, everything. Every step and movement for a single snapshot of time is in his head. It takes a moment for him to catch up with it, like a dream. 

The kick drum sits in the back of his head for now, the rhythm clear. 

He pulls out his phone and sends anonymous tips about minor disturbances all around the city to the proper authorities. One little issue is prominent though, something the police don't really need to be informed of, considering it's all over the news. He scales the building beside him and heads toward the direction of the museum.

He's about halfway there when he catches a flash of red in his field of vision. 

God fucking damn it.

"Blurry!" He calls out. "Aren't you getting tired of this?"

The asshole pretends not to be paying attention.

Josh can feel the rustle of something heavy like stones on Blurry's person, almost as though it were floating in thin air. Josh could never simply sense his presence, his actual being clouded in something unexplainable. He really wished he could just keep this fucker in jail and be done with it but it's never really that easy.

Blurryface hops on to the ledge of the building he's on. Josh feels something like fear in his gut very briefly until Blurry turns on his heel to face him. He's wearing the usual cat suit and a hood over his head, a mask obscures his face. Josh would ask him how it is that he can run around looking like this all the time with zero semblance of shame, but then he remembers that he's sort of covered head to toe in spandex and doesn’t really have the right to judge.

"On your way to the museum, stray? Better hurry, I hear their rare gem exhibit is scheduled for auction tonight." A flicker of something red catches light for a millisecond and drops back into Blurry's hand. A ruby, Josh deduces. "I hear it's to die for" Blurry's voice sends chills down Josh's spine.

"There are easier ways to ask someone out" Josh deadpans. Somehow he can't work up the nerve to even pretend to be nervous around this guy; he thinks his anxiety around people just cancels out in this case. "A simple 'hey, let's go get coffee' probably would've sufficed" Josh continues. He wishes he were this funny in any other social situation. 

A knife flies by close enough to nick the skin on his face. Josh has his force field up just a moment late. 

"You should learn not to get too comfortable around me, mutt. Or should I hold you down and break both your legs again?" 

Josh can't help but wince. That was in fact a thing that had actually happened, and despite his relatively decent healing factor the actual experience was not something he'd ever want to re-live. He wills energy back into his fingertips, his powers never seemed to have any effect on Blurryface for whatever fucking reason, but he could still shake the ground beneath him if worse came to worse. He'd cause a ton of property damage too but there's no life in this building. He wonders if that was deliberate. At this point, he's pretty confident in the fact that Blurry stages these elaborate showdowns to mess with him. His sources reassured him that despite being all but invisible to the general public, he was one of the biggest names in the criminal underground, and there's a reason he'd stayed underground for so long. The guy moved like a shadow, Josh could hardly ever get a reading on him and when he did he was always waiting for him on some rooftop or secluded warehouse or abandoned theater like some kind of asshole. Which he was. What an asshole.

"All I'm saying" Josh says, trying to distract him in an attempt to get close enough to subdue him. "Is I'm flattered but there's kind of this guy I'm into right now" He aims a kick at Blurry's middle and when he hops back onto the building he aims a shockwave underneath him. Blurry sees it coming and shoots a grappling hook over the ledge before the floor crumbles underneath him. Josh readies himself to fight again but in an instant Blurry's gone again and hands are reaching out around his neck from behind him. 

"He doesn't have to know" Blurry sing songs in a mocking voice. Josh knows he's in trouble when he starts playing along. The hands around his neck are unyeliding. He headbutts him and by some miracle it manages to loosen his grip. 

Josh considers his next move before sirens are blaring and Blurry is perking his head up like a cat listening for something in the distance. 

"Leaving so soon?" Josh hopes he can distract him long enough to at least restrain him before the authorities arrive but Blurry is giving him that look (or Josh thinks he's giving him the look. It's kind of hard to tell with the mask) that says he's ready to bail. 

"The night calls" Blurry remarks, like an asshole. "But I'd hate to have to leave you without some kind of memento of our encounter, kitten." 

Josh is about to voice his displeasure at the pet name when a fist connects right to his face. 

\---

"Josh!" 

Josh's head perks up at the sound of the voice, not unlike a puppy. Tyler is sitting at his usual booth by the window. Josh feels the familiar rush of euphoria that comes with being absolutely wholeheartedly enamoured with a person, and running on two hours of sleep and enough caffeine to kill a horse. 

"Ty-"

"Holy shit, what happened to your face?"

Josh winces, Blurry's punch left a bruise that hadn’t quite gone down yet. He was in the middle of his usual 'That Asshole Finally Gets Arrested' daydream, when he felt delicate fingers trace the lines of his face. 

"I-I, what are you doing?"

"Hold still, let me see" Tyler says, with his voice like the choir of heaven's angels. Josh could swear he saw light coming down from the ceiling. "Who did this to you? I'm going to burn their house down" Tyler says, looking completely serious but in like a really cute way. Josh felt dazed.

"I- uh, no one. It's fine, I'm fine I just" Josh bit his lip, thinking of a good excuse. "I fell off the bed last night and hit my shoe?" fuck, Tyler was never gonna buy that.

"What the fuck dude? What's in your shoes" Tyler punches him lightly in the arm, laughing. Josh lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. 

"I'm, haha this will be gone by the afternoon just you wait it wasn't that bad" Josh is trying really hard to push down the butterflies in his stomach from hearing Tyler laugh at him. He wishes he could just sit down and listen to Tyler laugh all afternoon but that would be weird probably. "And you have no right to talk, Mr. I've Walked Into More Glass Doors Than I Have Fingers" 

"NINE TIMES JOSHUA. Do your math, I don't deserve this libel." 

"Fine, fine, I'll make it up to you. Let me pay for breakfast today." Josh says picking up the menu.

"Woah, hey no. Don't you dare, Joshua Dun. I know your saving up for that new drum kit, and until you let me buy you the kit like I've offered like a million times, I'm paying for breakfast."

"Tyler come on, I get you've got money to burn but you can stop treating me like I'm some kind of charity case" Josh puts on his best puppy-dog eyes for emphasis.

"Maybe if you didn't have rent due in a week and an appetite the size of Mount Rushmore I'd consider it." 

Josh's face falls.

"It's due next week?"

"How many times have I told you to stay on top of this?" 

"Uh, a lot" Fuck, where would he be without Tyler. Probably really sad. Tyler was like every star in the sky to him. He was like the ever-glowing light of the sun in his intensity. Josh couldn't imagine life without him. What was he talking about again? Tyler looks mad. 

Right, rent. He can make it this time no worries.

"Josh" 

"I can make it this time, no worries" Josh is super proud of himself.

"I'm still paying for breakfast" Tyler looks less than proud of him, it's not a pretty sight. 

Wait, yes it is Tyler is always pretty, even when hes disappointed in him. Josh would rather Tyler be less-less than proud of him though and tries to shift the subject.

"Check this out" Tyler says, shoving his phone screen at Josh's face.

It's a picture of him last night with that girl from the alley. Josh groans inwardly. 

"Not that weirdo in the cape again" 

"What exactly do you have against the guy?"

"It's just- I just, it's just weird you know? We're just Okay with some random guy with super powers running around and playing hero? That sounds a little dangerous don't you think?" Josh says, because he has reasons to say these things other than the fact that he might be just a little jealous of Tyler's fascination with his own alter-ego. Because he's not. He's absolutely not pathetic enough to be jealous of himself. He just doesn't want anyone getting suspicious of him, and that usually translates to him being hyper-critical of himself whenever anyone brings it up in public. Tyler's no exception.

"Well" Tyler says, interrupting his thoughts "He inspires me, that's for sure" 

Tyler inspires him.

Fuck

Wow

"I'm sure you inspire him too" Josh finds himself saying.

"What?"

"I MEAN LIKE WE ALL DO, BECAUSE HE'S A HERO AND THAT'S PROBABLY WHY THEY DO THE THING"

Smooth.

"Oh, yeah I guess. Glad we can agree on that at least." Tyler laughs.

Josh laughs too, his identity safe for now. Part of him wishes he could tell Tyler, maybe then his feelings would have an actual chance at being reciprocated, but it felt weird in a way. Besides he had more than one reason to keep his best friend (his beautiful beautiful best friend) from knowing he was spending the better part of most evenings fighting crime.

Josh peeks behind his menu back at Tyler. He's still looking at the picture, a fondness in his eyes that makes Josh's gut wrench. Tyler continues to steal glances at the picture over breakfast. His expression a little harder to read. One in particular happens to send a familiar chill down his spine, but he brushes it off.


End file.
